Sarkozy digs in as winter of strikes looms

The battle lines are being drawn, the tear gas and the placards stockpiled. France is preparing for a political war that is unlikely to be over by Christmas.

Nicolas Sarkozy, the hyperactive new President, is taking on the self-proclaimed defenders of the rights of the French worker, the unions. Not any old unions either, but the railway workers, miners, fishermen, employees of the vast national electric company and many of the country's bureaucrats who, as they have proved on numerous occasions, are capable of paralysing the country.

This week Sarkozy is expected to announce that he will end the generous special retirement packages enjoyed or anticipated by the 1.6 million Frenchmen and women they represent and spark the first major clash of his presidency.

'If the government has already made a decision and is going to try to impose it, then there will be a major conflict,' said François Chereque, one railway union chief. A second, Bernard Thibault, promised 'sport ... and not just on the rugby pitch'.

The threats of industrial strife are not idle. The last time a government tried to deprive train drivers of the right to retire at 50 on a full wage, a three-week nationwide strike immobilised the country and forced an ignominious retreat. But Sarkozy has signalled his determination to continue with the reform. Last week he called the special pension deals, which cost the French taxpayer £3bn a year, 'a disgrace'.

'He has nothing to fear from a test of strength,' said the President's special adviser on industrial relations, Henri Guaino. Union officials, however, called the President's words 'provocative, demagogic and insulting'.

Observers say the energetic President is - if it is possible - moving up a gear. 'His first 100 days in office haven't just been a walk in the park, but he has carefully avoided the most difficult files that are sitting on his desk,' said Vincent Beaufils, editor of Challenges business magazine. 'Now Sarkozy is finally embarking on real change.'

The special pensions regimes are deeply rooted in France's history and culture. The right of train drivers to retire at 50 originates from the age of steam, when the life expectancy of rail workers was significantly lower than the national average. But the less onerous working day of the modern driver is not an argument for changing the system, SNCF employees told The Observer this weekend.

'It's a hard life. It's not like we work in an office block or something with a pretty secretary and a nice view of the Eiffel Tower,' said Herve Prasquier as he came off shift at Paris's Gare du Nord. 'We've earned everything we get.'

Even the opposition Socialist Party has not opposed the reform, merely calling for negotiations before any legislation. One poll published last year showed that 72 per cent of the population supported a major reform of French pensions, which are among the most generous and expensive in the world.

'We are backed by a public opinion that has never been as enthusiastic,' one conservative politician told The Observer.

Few doubt that change is necessary. The French state's coffers are badly in the red and with one in four people employed by the public sector and 41 per cent of the adult population working, the state simply does not have enough money to pay pensions for an ageing population.

The unions are preparing for a long fight. 'We may lose the battle over pensions,' said Prasquier, the train driver. 'But we won't lose the war.'